Grip for handles



July 9, 1940- E. B. LAMKlN- GRIP FOR HANDLES Filed April v1'?, 1959(jg-13. J0 j@ Patented July 9, 1940 i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEv GRIPFOR HANDLES Elver B. Lamkin, Chicago, Ill.

Application April 17, 1939, Serial No. 268,229

7 Claims.

My invention relates to grips for the handles of golf clubs, rackets,and the like. It is especially concerned with the type of grip whichcomprises a strip of leather wrapped spirally about, and secured to, thehandle with thelateral edges of successive convolutions forming buttjoints.

In one type of such a grip the margins of the back sides of the striphave been skived to present marginal bands of lesser thickness with amedial band of full thickness intermediate them. When applied to ahandle with the skived bands as well as the land band pressed againstthe handle and adhered thereto, the exposed or face side of the grippresents a shallow spiralled groove with generously i'llleted shoulders.The groove, by its physical conformation, gives more traction to thehand than would a plain unskived strip. The groove is thus obtainedwithout cutting into the grain surface.

One objection to such a. grip has been that the "thumbing" of the griphas pulled the skived edges free from the handle, permitting the edgesto curl and become uncomfortable to the hand as Well as unsightly.

The chief object of my present invention is to improve upon this type ofgrip by eliminating the tendency of the lateral edges to work loose andcurl, without, however, sacricing the advantages of this type of gripnor add to its cost of manufacture or of application.

In general, I realize the foregoing object by running the skiving as amedial band, rather than as a pair of marginal bands, along the backside of the strip. This leaves a pair of marginal land bands. The buttcontact between adjoining lateral edges of the successive convolutionsthen comes along full thickness edges which, because of their greaterthickness, are less apt to be pulled loose and start to curl. Otheradvantages also attend this arrangement, as will later be pointed out.

The foregoing, together with further objects, features and advantages ofmy invention are set forth in the following description of specificembodiments thereof.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of the handle of a golf club provided with thegrip of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a view of the back side of one end of the grip strip used onthe handle of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross section of the strip taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2,on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 4 is a diametrical section of a fragment of the handle of Fig. 1,on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 5 is an elevation of the handle of a tennis racket showing amodified form of grip strip; and

Fig. 6 is a cross section of the grip strip of Fig. 5.

Referring to Fig. 1, the grip is formed byv a strip III-preferably ofleather-spirally wrapped around the handle II of a golf club I2. Inpractice the strip may be adhered directly to the handle portion of thegolf stick, or to a paper listing wrapped about the handle portion toincrease its diameter and to augment itslflare.

The grip strip I0 is a single long strip of leather with parallellateral edges (see Fig. 2). Its outer face is natural or simulated topgrain treated in the usual manner to render itsemitacky.

vA central longitudinal region is skived out of the back side, as shownin Figs. 2 and 3, to form a medialskived band I3 which is aboutonefourth of the width of the strip (in the instance of the usual golfclub grip). This leaves a pair of lands I4 of full thickness along therespective lateral margins of the strip with the skived band I3 of abouthalf thickness lying between the lands. The junction of the skived bandwith the lands is preferably square cut to leave square shoulders I5facing each other.

The strip I0 is spirally wrapped upon the handle and adhered thereto,the lateral edges I 6 of one convolution abutting the adjoining lateraledges of neighboring convolutions, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4.1 Themedial region of the strip is pressed radially inwardly to adhere theskived band I3 to the handle. This may conveniently be done by the thumbor by a crowned roller. The result, viewed from the exterior, is aspiral depression I1, of somewhat arcuate cross section, on the outsideof the skived `band I3. The square cut shoulders I5 tend to give theAdepression Il more defined obtusely angled corners I8 where they meetthe cylindrical external surface I9 of the gripv outwardly of the landsI4.

The following are some of the advantages of my grip as compared with themarginally skived type mentioned in the introduction:

(a) The inter-convolutional joints come at the edges I 6 of the lands I4which are of full thickness. The thicker leather, being stiier, is lesslikely to work loose from its adherence along the joints, and less aptto curl if it should be thumbed loose.

(b) There is less tendency to pull the skived region free from adhesionto the handle. This is because the transverse internal strain on theskived band (set up by its transverse stretching in pressing it out ofits normal line and inwardly against the handle) tending to pull ittransversely toward the adjacent land, is resisted by the integralanchorage of the skived band in the other adjoining land. In the typewhere the interconvolutional joint comes in skived regions, the lateralstrain or pull is resisted only by the imperfect adherence of the skivedband to the handle, and tends to strip it from the handle.

(c) Relatively little harm is done in my construction even if the skivedband should, here and there,or even everywherebe pulled loose fromadhesion to the handle. It frees no edge of the strip, cannot causepeeling or curling, and still presents a spiral depression at leastunder pressure of the hand.

I might here mention that in either type, there is an imperfectadherence of the skived band; rst, because its adherence cannot extendthroughout the full width to the shoulder; second, because the skivedleather, having been pressed inwardly out of its normal position, tendsto move outwardly to its normal position; and third, because an axialthrust of the lingers of the players hand against the depression edgesI8 tends to rock or shift the leather at that region longitudinally ofthe handle and thereby exert a transverse pull on the skived bandtending to strip the skived portion from the handle.

(d) My construction makes it feasible to form a narrower depression inthe exposed surface of the grip. In the marginally skived constructionof the prior art, each marginal skving must be wide enough to be pressedin against, and adhere to, the handle, and the resulting depression willbe twice that wide. My medial skiving does not have to be so wide.

(e) It is feasible to get a deeper spiral depression in the grip becausethe back side can safely be skived deeper, since no raw edge of theskived band is exposed.

(f) It is easier for workmen to apply the strip to the handle, becausethe thicker lateral edges of the strip are less apt to overlap and,being stiffer, may be more easily guided into abutting position.

(y) The spiral groove may start and stop wherever desired along thelength of the strip. This cannot be done with a marginally skived strip,because then a thin skived edge would abut a thick edge between the lastskived convolution and the adjoining unskived convolution.

Despite these advantages, my construction retains the advantages of agrip surface which is all top grain, free from exposed raw edges, andwhich has a spiral depression affording a more secure traction for thehands. My stripis no more expensive to make-in fact it involves only oneskiving operation-and it involves no more time or skill inapplication tothe handle.

In Figs. 5 and 6 I have shown my invention applied to the handle I I ofa tennis racket. Because of the greater diameter of the handle, in orderto avoid too steep an angle of lead for the spirally wrapped grip strip,I use a wider strip in accordance with the usual practice. Because ofthe wider strip I prefer to use a pair of spaced medial skived bands I3leaving not only the marginal lands I6' but a central land I6" betweenthe skived bands I3. The land I6" ls about twice the width of each landI6. In this way the width of the depressions Il' and the space betweenthem is kept comparable to that in the golf club grip of Fig. 1.

I claim:

1. A grip for the handle of a golf club, racket,

or the like, comprising a parallel edged onepiece single-thickness stripof grain leather of suillcient length to be wrapped spirally about thehandle throughout its grip portions with the lateral edges of successiveconvolutions abutting. the grain face being unskived, but the back sidehaving a skived band extending longitudinally thereof with a full singlethickness land band along each lateral margin, substantially asdescribed, the width oi' the skived band being4 at least several timesits depth.

2. A grip for the handle of a golf club, comprising a parallel edgedone-piece single-thickness strip of grain leather of suicient length tobe wrapped spirally about the handle throughout its grip portion withthe lateral edges of successive convolutions abutting, the grain facebeing unskived but the back side having a single band skived to abouthalf thickness and of width several times its depth and in the order ofonefourth the width of the strip extending medially ofthe strip, leavingon either side thereof a land band of full single thickness marginingthe respective lateral edge of the strip, whereby the lateral edges ofthe strip are of unfolded full thickness.

3. A grip for the handle of a golf club, comprising a strip of grainleather wrapped spirally about, and adhered to, the handle with thelateral edges of successive convolutions abutting and the grain exposed,a single medial band skived into the back side of the strip along at'least a considerable portion of its length, leaving a full thicknessband on either side thereof extending to the lateral edge of the strip,the grain face being pressed inwardly along the region of the skivedband to bring the latter against the handle, thereby representing aspiralled shallow groove in the grain face exterior of the grip.

4. A grip for the handle of a golf club, racket or the like, comprisinga strip of grain leather Wrapped spirally about, and adhered to, thehandle with the lateral edges of successive convolutions abutting andthe grain exposed, one or more medial bands skived into the back side ofthe strip along a plurality of convolutions, and unskived bands alongthe respective lateral margins of the strip extending transversely tothe lateral edges, the grain face being pressed inwardly to the handlealong the skived region to present a spiral groove in the externalsurface of the grip.

5. A grip according to claim 3, wherein the skived band is adhered tothe handle.

6. A grip for the handle of a racket, comprising a strip of grainleather of sufficient length to be wrapped spirally about the handlethroughout its grip portion with the lateral edges of successiveconvolutions abutting, the grain face being unskived, but the back sidehaving a plurality of spacing bands skived into the back side andextending longitudinally of the strip throughout a plurality ofconvolution lengths thereof, leaving longitudinally extending unskivedbands of full thickness, one unskived band lying between each adjacentpair of skived bands and one lying between each marginal edge and theadjacent skived band and extending to the marginal edge whereby topresent full thickness lateral edges.

'7. A grip for the handle of a racket comprising a strip of grainleather wrapped spirally about, and adhered to, the handle with thelateral edges of successive convolutions abutting and the grain exposed,a pair of laterally spaced medial bands skived into the back side of thestrip and extending longitudinally thereof through a plurality ofconvolution lengths, an unskived land band extending between the skivedbands and a. pair of marginal unskived land bands extending from therespective lateral edges to the adjacentskived band whereby the lateraledges of the strip are of full thickness, the grain face being pressedinwardly to the handle alon the skived region to present a pair ofspiral grooves in the external surface of the grip.

ELV'ER B. LAMKIN.

